Box Office: 'Smile 2' Tops 'Terrifier 3' With A Solid $9.4 Million Friday

'Anora' earns $300k in six theaters as 'Wild Robot' nears $100m, 'Beetlejuice Beetlejuice' nears 'Dune Two' and 'Terrifier 3' proves to be no one-weekend wonder.

As much as I talk about breakout sequels and how they happen (smaller-scale successes that earn solid reviews and strong word-of-mouth legging out and then earning additional fans in post-theatrical), a sequel need not overly surpass its predecessor to be considered a success. Not to pick on Joker: Folie a Deux again, but had the film cost closer to its predecessor’s $63 million budget, the current decline would still have placed it in the “made money or will make money very soon after theaters” category. Most sequels, especially before the 2000s, were expected to cost more and earn less. However, “back in the day,” the $40 million Ghostbusters II earning “only” $109 million domestic compared to the initial $229 domestic cume for the $25 million Ghostbusters wasn’t exactly a tragedy.

Smile 2 is not a “breakout sequel,” as I generally define it. Smile, a $18 million, intended-for-Paramount+ horror flick, opened theatrically in September of 2022 with $23 million from an $8.8 million Friday before legging out via strong buzz (and little scary movie competition beyond the niche-y Terrifier 2) to $106 million domestic (and $222 million worldwide). And now Smile 2, boasting a $28 million budget (while frankly looking and feeling a lot more expensive) and earning solid reviews, just opened with $9.4 million on Friday for a likely $25 million opening weekend. Was I somewhat “hoping” for a breakout debut? Sure, but that’s on me as I note that this is a concept-driven horror movie with no “marquee characters.” Generally, a $28 million programmer opening with $25 million would be “excellent.”

Parker Finn’s follow-up, this time starring Naomi Scott as a frazzled pop star who gets “infected” with the smile parasite/curse/whatever and slowly loses her mind, is the second of two refreshingly “big” horror follow-ups. A Quiet Place: Day One was more expensive ($67 million) than its predecessors and wore its big city spectacle and production values on its sleeve. Likewise, this one also took place in New York City and was sold as a follow-up to Smile and as a horror flick that wasn’t some “four people in a poorly-lit house struggling with generational trauma” mood piece. With solid reviews (86% from Rotten Tomatoes) and decent buzz (a B from Cinemascore, halfway decent for a brutally violent horror movie), opening on par with its predecessor is sometimes good enough.

I don’t expect this one to display its predecessor's absurd DreamWorks Animation-level legs. Still, it’s the last “official” scary movie of the month and will have at least post-debut 11 days to cash in on the spooky season. And yes, the blow-out performance of Terrifier 3, alongside that film’s status as the buzzy chiller of the moment, certainly ate into Smile 2’s likely opening weekend earnings. At worst, I’d argue this becomes one of those “sequel to an overperformer that ‘disappoints’ by earning what we expected the first time out” follow-ups. When you’re a $28 million follow-up to an $18 million-budgeted predecessor, you can pull a Ted 2 ($215 million in 2015 on a $68 million budget) or an Addams Family Values ($111 million on a $47 million budget in 1993).